I wanted to make sure I get something posted so we can move on- I don't think this is a comprehensive analysis of Darwin's Saturn but the best I can manage at this time. Thank you again for all of the deep work everyone is doing, I started taking a look at what Ari and Gonzalo wrote and look forward to reading it in more depth as both posts looked to be insightful . . .

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“Evolution, of course, was in Darwin’s day a shattering and heretical challenge to the simplistic, literalistic biblical view. First, the theory of evolution holds that the world is much, much older than the Bible says. Second, humans, animals, plants, bacteria, and all other creatures are a single continuum of life. Humans are not something set apart. We are animals, and we emerged from the same natural processes by which other life-forms evolved . . . Evolution restored dynamism to the universe, brought it alive as a growing, changing, interacting web of relationships . . .

Darwin himself was a great observer, embodying the permacultural principle of “thoughtful and protracted observation” more than a century before permaculture was formulated. He looked at the plants and animals and birds around him in the far-flung places of the world he traveled, and he let himself ask, “I wonder . . .”: ”I wonder how that tortoise got to be the way it is, how differences between those similar plants arose, what forces produced the beak on that bird.” He theorized that environmental pressures and constraints select the individuals most fitted to a given environment from a range of genetic variations . . . His theory of evolution and natural selection was a brilliant example of relational thinking, focusing not just on individuals or species as separate, isolated elements, but on the whole pattern of interactions, exchanges, and effects of living communities as a whole.”--Starhawk, The Earth Path, p. 42

With a Sagitarius Saturn, Charles Darwin had the evolutionary soul need to structure a scientific philosophy examining the meaning of life, integrating knowledge he gained from direct experience of life, including traveling over great distances to gain this knowledge. Rising above the horizon at the time of his birth, Darwin’s Sagitarius Saturn is at the end of the 12th House and conjunct his Sagitarius Ascendant as well as balsamic conjunct his Neptune. His Saturn is ruled by a Pisces Jupiter in the third house- in the context of his soul signature of a Pisces Pluto in the third house balsamic conjunct a Pisces Mercury and Ceres, the aspects of Darwin’s Sagitarius Saturn reveal the prominent role his Saturn played in his ability to create and structure from his own collection of data a scientific theory explaining how life could have developed across time on planet Earth. Darwin’s Sagitarius Saturn was involved in a balsamic clearing of past conditioned beliefs that helped him cut through the Neptunian illusions of consensus religious thought, a structuring of his consciousness that helped him to liberate from projected consensus beliefs in order to reveal specific aspects of religious conditioning that were not in alignment with the actual reality of the Nature of Creation. Born at a time in which humans were rapidly developing scientific theories in academic communities, Darwin focused his Saturn ambitions on gaining the status role of a scientific observer, investigator, and intellectual trailblazer of groundbreaking work to help humanity liberate themselves from crystallized beliefs systems stuck in religious conditioning. The mutable nature of Darwin’s Sagitarius Saturn, plus the mutable nature of his significant planets in Pisces, reflected the evolutionary needs of his soul to shatter his own crystallized conditioning and grow beyond.

As we have already discussed, Darwin had a very significant Pisces Mercury in his 3rd House that is conjunct the North Node of his Mercury as well as his natal Pluto and Ceres- this Mercury is in a first quarter square to Sagitarius Saturn in 12th, a Mercury that is then ruled by his Sagitarius Neptune in his 12th that is balsamic conjunct Saturn. Since Darwin’s Saturn-Neptune conjunction is then ruled by his Pisces Jupiter in his third house, all together these symbols show how Darwin utilized an empircal method of research to create a rational and scientific argument revealing aspects of the actual reality of Nature. As already discussed, part of Darwin’s soul desire to do this was connected with liberating people from becoming conditioned by consensus religious beliefs that were more of a projection upon the Nature of Creation than an uncovering of its actual reality. His soul is reflected by the first quarter square between his Pisces Mercury and Sagitarius Saturn because for his own evolution to proceed required him to take the responsibility to push past limitations of consensus thought in pursuit of knowledge to support his intellectual theories organizing his direct observations of Nature. However, as his Saturn in Sagitarius is about ten degrees away from an exact last quarter square to his Pisces Pluto, this was a difficult endeavor for him that could approach the level of a “crisis of consciousness” associated with the last quarter square aspect. Ultimately, however, his soul refused to be bound by his father’s attempts to persuade him into becoming part of the religious clergy, or the consensus conditioning that he should follow in his father’s footsteps as a medical doctor. Yet these exact conditions placed upon himself by being born when and where and to whom he was born are also part of his evolutionary soul needs reflected by his Saturn- his father and grandfather were both free-thinkers, and his father paid for him to receive not only a strong academic education from prestigious schools of learning but even helped finance Darwin’s voyages around the world as a scientific observer and researcher.

Darwin’s Aries Venus is in a first quarter trine to his Sagitarius Saturn at the end of his third house conjunct his IC. His Aries Venus is also the ruler of his 5th House South Node of the Moon in Taurus that is inconjunct his Sagitarius Saturn- these symbols go with his past soul desire of fulfilling a special destiny in which he held a prominent role initiating something or being seen as the leader or pioneer of a dynamic movement of some sort. The trine between his Aries Venus and his Sagitarius Saturn shows how it was easy for him to fall back into this desire, as reflected by his overly competitive intellectual nature and his willingness and capacity to secure authorship for himself of a paradigm shifting scientific theory grounded in substantial empirical evidence and support. His Aries Venus is also the ruler of his Libra MC and 10th House, a house in which a Libra Mars resides that is in square to the nodal axis of Darwin’s Saturn. This again is a sign of his need to be at the top of his profession and his ability to gain the resources and support needed to not only research and develop a dynamic scientific theory but to also gain access to the research materials, equipment, resources, and resulting evidence needed to substantially support such a theory with clear empirical backing. Aries Venus ruling his 10th House and his Libra Mars being in square to the nodal axis of his Saturn also shows how Darwin had a drive underlying the mutable construction of his mental structure to push himself forward past obstacles toward the path of personal growth.

The Saturn of Charles Darwin was vital to his moment-to-moment daily processing of his life as it is the ruler of his Capricorn Moon. Moreover, Darwin’s Capricorn Moon was one of the biggest influences on his Saturn’s evolutionary growth, as it is intimately involved with both the south and north nodes of Saturn in his chart. The South Node of his Saturn is in Capricorn and conjunct his Capricorn Moon, and the North Node of his Saturn is in Cancer and is ruled by his Capricorn Moon. The times of intense depression Darwin went through in his emotional life in the end helped his Saturnian re-structuring of his consciousness to evolve beyond the crystallized beliefs and other conditioning leading to his suffering. He experienced many intense tragedies from the early death of his mother to the early death of children, all of which made him confront on an inner level deep questions about life and death and divinity. As we have discussed, the south node of his Saturn in Capricorn is a symbol shared by all other souls at the time of his incarnation, rooted in the impact on collective consciousness caused by the transition from more natural and matriarchal times to the patriarchal era leading to increased separation between humans and the natural world both in behavior and beliefs. Although Darwin’s theories in many ways ultimately were used by others to increase the separation of humans from nature, such as in the survival of the fittest becoming a philosophical rationalization for destructively selfish action taken by corporations, at the heart of his theory is actually the concept that humans are just one interdependent part embedded in a web of diverse natural relationships in our universe.

The South Node of Darwin’s Saturn being conjunct his Capricorn Moon meant that his unexplained illnesses that plagued him could have been linked to chronic emotional fatigue and stress caused in part by unresolved trauma and fears from his soul’s deep history with the impact on the collective psyche caused by the shift toward a more patriarchal and mechanical structuring of human consciousness. Since Darwin was born in a colonial empire during a time of an increasing industrial revolution, and he also took advantage of opportunities to do world travelling and experience diverse cultures, he was able to see firsthand the destruction to natural ways of living caused by human development rooted in a monotheistic vision of the world that held followers of certain dogma to have access to eternal salvation, meaning that those who would not follow could likewise be damned. Darwin came into contact with people who had been enslaved, as well as oppressed indigenous and aboriginal people as a result of his world travelling. Moreover, his soul desire to travel the globe could in part be traced to his past incarnation as the famous explorer William Dampier, whose 12th House Sagitarius Jupiter is reflected in the 12th House conjunction of Sagitarius Saturn and Jupiter in Darwin’s chart. Since his Sagitarius Saturn ruling both the South Node of his Saturn and his natal Capricorn Moon is in a balsamic conjunction with Neptune, Darwin structured his consciousness to continually clear out illusory beliefs conditioned by culture that he came to realize through direct experience of his life were not actually true.

Interestingly, the North Node of Darwin’s Saturn is in Cancer in his 8th house and so is also ruled by his Capricorn Moon in his second house. This symbolism can be seen in his soul desire to form a family in his lifetime and become a committed father who was able to help nurture his children. Darwin grew up with a father who was more obsessed with his own career and public reputation then spending time emotionally nurturing his children, and in many ways Darwin also continually found himself drawn in this direction as he was also obsessed with his career and how he would be viewed in history. However, he also took time away from his career pursuits at various points to be with his family in times of need, and this seemed to be part of the evolutionary growth of his Saturn. He had to overcome the 8th house fear of losing control in merging his heart and being into deep emotional intimacy with loved ones, risking having his heart broken by a tragedy such as the loss of his mother and the eventual loss of his own children. Darwin’s growth would be to open up the defensive side of his Cancer North Node in order to allow himself to be a fully present and emotional support for his loved ones; however, since his Capricorn Moon ruling his north node is also conjunct the South Node of his Saturn as well as the south nodes of Jupiter, Pluto, Venus, Vesta, and Mercury, nodes that are all connected with past life trauma, Darwin would experience an emotional dynamic of reaching out to connect with loved ones and then defensively withdrawing into a focus on his own resources and career pursuits. However, since his Sagitarius Saturn is the ruler of his Capricorn Moon, and it is in a balsamic conjunction with Neptune- Darwin was able to structure his consciousness in a manner to realize some of the illusory beliefs carried over from past trauma and take the risk to fully emotionally connect with his wife and family.

Firstly thanks, along with Gray, for the wishes re my health - I'm very happy to celebrate that with you!

And secondly, an update - I have been trying to squeeze some time aside to post on Saturn but just had some real major items to deal with and been further delayed. I just can't get to this for maybe up to another two or three weeks now, although I really want to post and will be looking for any opportunity to do so sooner if I can. I'm very sorry about this - and I'd totally understand if you need to move on before then.

Thank you for taking the time to post on the EA of Dampier leading to Darwin and their link by way of Mercury. This EA work that you have done is simply brilliant Gonzalo. Brilliant. It is the very best of what EA is about, and demonstrates the incredible degree of depth and comprehensiveness possible. No other form of astrology can even come close to this so the effort and work you have provided for us, and EA in general, is as inspiring as it is incredible. This is how EA is meant to be done. You along with the others who have participated in this thread are literally helping all those who have come to read this thread understand not only what EA is, but what it is capable of doing and how to do it. It takes a truly determined Soul who desires to understand EA in this way versus all those who just want to memorize by rote some descriptive lists of character traits that traditional astrology offers.

Thanks for taking the time, given all else going on in your life, that you have to work on this step in our planetary method: Saturn. What you have presented is, as you say, not as comprehensive as otherwise it could be, and degree and depth of comprehensiveness that I know you can do given your past EA work on our message board. What you have presented is certainly accurate enough and does capture certain core dynamics that comprised the structure nature of Darwin's consciousness. Your EA reasoning for what you have focused on is exceptional and very sound. This is how EA is meant to be done. You along with the others are truly helping teach EA to all those who have come to this thread to learn.

I will keep this thread open and ongoing as long as you all want to keep it going until it's conclusion which will involve Uranus and Neptune. So if you all so desire please let me know. I understand the time constraints you are all dealing with because of life itself. If it takes longer for this or that segment on this thread then so be it as far as I am concerned. We are seriously considering turning this thread into a published book so as to have wider distribution of the incredible level of EA knowledge that this thread has generated because OF YOUR EFFORTS. For this I thank you all.

Rad, thanks so much for the feedback, however, I personally disliked my post on Dampier’s and Darwin’s Mercury. I feel it’s too harsh in some ways, and it can be hurtful or offensive for someone reading it who could identify with some of these dynamics, someone like me in first place. So, I’ve Mercury edited and re-written some parts and added some little further analysis, now making a conscious effort to write in a more loving and compassionate way. The change in my point of view relates to just these points:

(1) Mercury/Saturn square the nodes being in Cancer in Dampier’s chart imply that the impact of the early environment in the current lifetime cannot be over-stressed. This needs to be addressed and understood from an EA point of view.

(2) EA has nothing to do with judging whether the emotional dynamics, leading to whatever types of situations or experiences the Soul needs to create, are ‘sound’ or not. EA is about understanding what these dynamics are, and why.

(3) Mercury square the nodes needs to bring attention to the psychology of effort, step by step improvement, and doing what is possible to do. I mentioned this in relation with the psychology of acedia and anhedonia in prior lifetimes, however, choices made by Dampier in that lifetime reflect an enormous amount of evolutionary effort, and some of the outcome of such effort was noticeable in his next lifetime as Darwin.

(4) Mercury square the nodes in Cancer, 8th House, reflect conscious and subconscious thoughts that are directed to the inner family, and the outer family, by which the Soul tries to put itself together, process the unresolved emotions, and progressively heal the inner states and self-image, and by which the Soul communicates or sends messages to the family-Mercury is conjunct Cupido.

(5) At a sexual level, relative to the types of unresolved sexual desires and basic sexual urges that coexist with idealization of the woman, it seems important to me to clarify that love and tender feelings for the woman are not precluded. In themselves the basic, unresolved sexual urges, do not preclude feelings of love. Same thing, the idealized relation with inner images of the woman do not preclude a flow of love to the existing ‘external’ woman. Quite the contrary in some way, in that inner and outer thoughts impact on the external objects through morphic resonance. Another detail about the love for women who were prostitutes. I don’t intend to have any judgment about this at all. Many times the relationships with these women were based on prior lives connections coming from natural times, which were a basis for the mutual attractions: love, and Soul growth potential because of unresolved connections that needed to be evolved. That the sexual desires have been repressed, and thus distorted, of course we know it: it’s part of the story of the species. Many Souls have gone through this type of situation. The point I wanted to make is that these two types of orientation to women –basic sexual desires and idealized expectations - coexisted within the Soul of Dampier in ways that required further integration in order to coincide and be given focus; and this demanded some extra level of objectivity, which in turn demanded emotional processing of too much intensity of experiences of loss and mourning coming from the past; which needed to be addressed by means of taking some distance from the natural desires that existed to be in intimate relationships that would or could derive in having a family. However, with the 7th House ruler Mercury conjunct Saturn in Cancer in the 8th House, squaring the nodes, marriage situation still needed to occur, as a recreation from past dynamics, in order to induce new choices in face of the old. That's just how it works. He fucking needed to try to do it, even though it wouldn’t come out so well. We don't create the rules ... Seeing it this way, it sounds more compassionate to me. It’s just how it is, not how it ‘should’ be.

(6) I took a long road in my analysis in order to establish step by step the dynamic of duplication of the inner image of the mother, and women. I think the same dynamic can also be established in the birthchart of Dampier in a more direct, simple way, given that the Cancer archetype correlates with the ‘anima’ in jungean terms.

So, here it goes again, with just minor changes or additions ….. what follows is identical to the prior post, except for ‘details’ which seemed relevant to me …

Thanks, community, God Bless, Gonzalo

William Dampier’s Mercury

With Pluto in Gemini in the 7th House, ruled by Mercury/Saturn in the 8th House in Cancer square the nodes from the 11th House to the 5th House, and the Pluto opposition by Neptune/Uranus in Sagittarius in the 1st House-Uranus is the 3rd House ruler- there is a deep crisis –square- relating to the Soul’s orientation to knowledge and the impact in this orientation of the transition between natural times and the patriarchal. Pluto in Gemini, Mercury in the 8th House, reflect a bottom-line evolutionary intention to metamorphose orientation to knowledge and resulting intellectual constructions which have created a limitation, and a fixity, in the Soul’s knowledge processing. There are repressed or unconscious memories from natural times, which have also been a reason for an overall conflict and instinctual opposition to manmade ways of thinking and overall types of ‘civilized’ socialization -7th House Pluto opposition to Uranus/Neptune in Sagittarius- with a variety of responses to this conflict. The massive crises in socialization also includes personal and intimate relationships because Gemini and Pluto are in the 7th House-Venus is in the 6th House-a natural Mercury house-relating to a crisis within relationships, in Taurus, with himself, and with others in general – Pluto 7th House, South Node in Libra, ruled by the Venus, and Mercury/Saturn in the 8th Cancer is also specific to marriages, and family relationships. Thus, these symbols relate to intellectual crises that have fully impacted and are rooted on the emotional body, and how emotional and psychological insecurity has conditioned the orientation to truth or knowledge in general. There are inner feelings and unresolved emotional states of overwhelming loss and separation, which are not integrated, which have conditioned a series of responses, and extreme responses, to the conflict between being in relationships, or being alone and independent as ways to find and process knowledge, including giving knowledge to others. We have posted before on how this conflict manifested in Darwin’s chart, in connection with his Mars in Libra in the 10th House square the nodes of Pluto and Saturn, and the different responses and resulting types of experiences including Darwin’s Uranus North Node conjunction. We have also posted on the themes in Darwin’s Soul’s evolution of unresolved loss and mourning coming from the times of transition from matriarchy to patriarchy, connecting to the loss of the connection with the mother, types of traumas which have been recreated in many lifetimes as loss of family members or loss of children-Pluto Pisces, Moon in Capricorn 2nd House conjunct the south nodes of Pluto, Saturn and others, with the Moon ruling the 8th House Cancer in Darwin’s chart. In Dampier we see these themes in the Saturn 8th House square to the nodes; also in the South Node of the Moon being in the 11th House, with the Moon in Virgo 9th House square Uranus/Ceres in the 1st House, ie. mother figures or families which are detached and alienated from. Persephone is conjunct the south nodes of Pluto/Saturn and is opposed to Saturn; asteroid Orpheus is exactly conjunct the South Node, with Euridike conjuncting the Moon in the 9th House Virgo, and so on. The Saturn/Mercury square to the nodes in the 8th House of course are themselves a symbol of unresolved mourning.

As in Darwin’s chart, there are symbols in Dampier’s chart of having experienced deep communion in natural times, and of being initiated in natural sexual rituals, in the natural ways-Pluto 7th House in Gemini ruled by Mercury in the 8th House in Cancer, square the nodes, the South Node in the 11th Aquarian House, ruled by Venus in Taurus 6th House which forms a Grand trine with Pallas in the 2nd House Capricorn and the Moon in the 9th House Virgo. Venus is also in a Full phase sesquicuad with Mars, ie. social role of the rituals in the times when authority, and intellectual authority, were being transferred from the women to men, and guilt within the Soul, and of course there has been a variety of responses to these because of the overall conflict and direct or indirect rebellion against the ‘system’. Because Pluto is Gemini, 7th House, and the South Node is Libra in the 11th House, the nature of the rebellion within the Individuated stages has been oriented to a variety of types of relationships both personal and intimate and relationships with society as such: Pluto 7th House trine Mars in the 10th House Libra, Saturn square the nodes; also Venus, ruler of the South Node is in the 6th House of work and service, and rules the 10th House Libra and Mars/Vesta in Libra in the 10th House. Pluto being Gemini, opposed by Neptune/Uranus Sagittarius, and Mercury being square the nodes, demonstrate that some of the rebellions have been specifically connected with belief systems, and further, with types of relationships that have confronted the ‘beliefs’ and opinions of the consensus. We have seen in Darwin’s chart the symbols which refer to prior lifetimes in the context of communities, and religious based communities: Uranus/South Node in the 11th House Scorpio, ruled by Pluto in Pisces. We can also consider within these Darwin’s symbols the possibility of such communities having confronted larger forces, and being persecuted for religious reasons. In Dampier’s chart, same types of prior lives dynamics are reflected in the South Node in the 11th House, ruled by Venus in the 6th House, and Mercury/Saturn squaring the nodes in the 8th House, in turn ruled by the Moon in the 9th House in Virgo, relative to Pluto Gemini and its opposition to the 1st House Sagittarius Neptune/Uranus: collective trauma of these communities.

There is an overall intention and need to bring these emotional memories into conscious awareness for processing and resolution-Mercury square the nodes in the 8th House, South Node in the 11th House. However the potential for alienation, and necessary alienation as we shall see, is reflected in these very symbols, and in Mercury/Saturn being ruled by the Moon in the 9th House, in Virgo, ie. alienation coexisting with guilt, resulting in sarcasm.

The intention to induce emotional integration reflected in the Saturn/Mercury square to the nodes, in Cancer 8th House would be induced early in life. These symbols reflect natural emotional needs that would not be met in the early environment, thus creating displaced emotions translating into expectations of having these needs met later in life in the adult intimate relationships. Because Saturn is square to Mars in Libra in the 10th House, with Mars ruling the 4th House, and Mars is also square to the Cancer Sun in the 7th House, we are looking at a signature of parental emotional and physical abuse. Also the Moon is square to the 1st House Uranus, and Uranus rules Nessus in the 3nd House in Aquarius, which is the focal point of a Yod pattern with the Moon and Mercury, is square to Venus and forms a sesquisquare to Mars; Mercury is conjunct Saturn in Cancer, and Saturn rules the 2nd House; Mars squaring the Cancer Saturn is conjunct Vesta, and further squares the south node of Vesta in the 2nd House, opposing Saturn. These symbols correlate with sexual abuse in the early environment, which directly and intensely impact on the self-image of the Soul, the egocentric structure-Saturn Cancer 8th House, Moon Virgo-and patterns of self-relatedness-Venus 6th House, Capricorn 2nd House ruled by Saturn- and translate into desires to preserve the inner mother image despite the proof of reality, and masochistic dynamics.

Now in Dampier’s birthchart this is a lifetime which is quite focused on relationship issues, or imbalances within relationships, based on relationship patterns coming from prior lifetimes –Pluto in the 7th House, South Node in Libra. There are and have been a variety of dynamics and karmic themes within relationships, and wives, and families. There are deep fears of intimacy, which coexist with intense projected expectations of emotional nature within the relationships. Many resulting issues in prior lifetimes have involved levels of honesty, knowledge of motives, promises, duplicity and concealment, and many partings and separations-the Pluto 7th House opposition to Neptune/Uranus 1st House, and the South node in the 11th House Libra-detachment from relationships. That these have created crises is indicated by Venus, the South Node ruler, being in the 6th, Virgo House, and forming a trine with the Virgo Moon in the 9th House, and being inconjunct to the North Node. Again, this is a reflection of the earlier traumas of loss of the connection with the mother, and the resulting inner devastation and weariness-the same Moon and Venus and the Grand trine with Pallas Rx in the 2nd House Capricorn, which is opposed to Mercury, and is also in a square to the nodal axis. And the Mercury/Saturn square to the nodes further correlate with an inner state of depression and melancholia, which is a result of the unresolved grief and mourning.

Same time, there has been a long term element of lack in relationships, emotional security that is missing or has been denied from an external source along many lifetimes because of the individual’s need to become self-secure in independent ways-North Node in Aries in the 5th House, Pluto polarity point in the 1st House-note that the North Node is the resolution node for the Saturn/Mercury skipped steps.

Because Venus is in the 6th House, ruling the South Node in Libra in the 11th House, the Soul manifested duality and duplicity in past lifetimes–Pluto Gemini 7th House, Mercury in the 8th House, in various ways. The duplicity is inherently based on the unresolved loss and mourning –Saturn/Mercury Cancer square the nodes, and how the loss, separation and absence, have been dealt with within relationships and how they have impacted on intellectual orientation and organization –Pluto Gemini 7th House. There have been potentially a variety of manifestations of these symbols, which can be seen as variations or elaborations of the loss. There are intellectual patterns which have operated in relationships which are part of unintegrated shadow -8th House, and Saturn-which however has been projected in relationships, and karmic relationships with women and family members. More intense than shadow projections are dynamics of anima projection-Cancer. We can see here, as in Darwin’s birthchart, obvious symbols of rebellion against patriarchal regulation of family and kinship-same Mercury/Saturn Cancer square the South Node in the 11th House, Pluto in the 7th in Gemini, correlating with siblings (in Darwin’s chart, North Node conjunct Uranus in the 11th House Scorpio, ruled by Pluto in the 3rd House, Venus in Aries 3rd House ruled by Mars in the 10th House, etc.). At one basic level, these symbols reflect the Soul’s inner trauma and a partial denial of social changes, implying that relationships, sex, children, and families, could create consequences that would be relative to a patriarchally conditioned reality.

We know this is a Soul that is inwardly defined by a compelling instinctual need for independent discovery, and self-discovery-Neptune/Uranus in Sagittarius in the 1st House opposing Pluto, North Node in Aries 5th House ruled by Mars trine to Pluto-this is a man who circumnavigated Earth three times. So, the Pluto in the 7th House reflects extremes in the orientation to relationships, which have resulted from the conflicting desires to be in relationships, and the need for independent exploration and discovery. And because Pluto is Gemini, there have been dynamics of duplicity. What types of duplicity? There have been a variety of situations which, at their core, are based on the unresolved emotional states, and how these unresolved states have impacted on the Soul’s objectivity about reality in general, and about self and others within relationships specifically, ie. the Soul’s ability to discriminate between what is real and what is not real - reality and illusion- in the object or the perceived ‘other’-Pluto 7th House Gemini rules the 12th House Scorpio, Pluto is opposed by Neptune, Mercury squares the nodes. The inability to discriminate is based on what could be called a duplication of the lost object.

Within relationships, some of the manifestations have been:

* An orientation to a variety of relationships in which Dampier’s Soul has lacked discrimination about whom to get involved with, and whom not: Pluto 7th House Gemini, South Node Libra 11th House, its ruler, Venus, in the 6th House; Mercury square the nodes. This of course includes many relationships which have been sexual in nature-Pluto, 8th House. There have been many relationships with women who were prostitutes: the South Node ruler is Venus in the 6th House, in Taurus, ruling Mars/Vesta in the 10th House Libra. These were based on prior Soul connections coming from the natural, matriarchal times, creating deep permeating bonds combining intense sexual attraction, desires to be nurtured, and to nurture, to be protected and secure, and to provide protection and security, to heal and to be healed. The point here is that, for different reasons, analysis was required in order to know what types of choices -8th House-defined the reality these women desired to create through their own orientation to relationships.

* An orientation to detach from wanting to be in relationships: Libra in the 11th House, Pluto 7th House opposed by Uranus 1st House, Pluto ruled by Mercury square the nodes, in order to be totally free to expand the horizon of understanding

* Within the desires to be in relationships, an underlying dynamic has existed of projection of ideals, an idealization of women who have been perceived as an embodiment of ‘perfection’ or the so: Scorpio on the 12th House cusp, ruled by Pluto in the 7th House opposed by Neptune- leading to wanting to ‘believe’ in whatever ways these women would chose to present themselves, without having their reality checked, or rather, having the desires to ‘believe’ or to maintain the ideals imposed on the observed reality-Mercury/Saturn squaring the nodes. This of course is also based on the projected emotional expectations coming from childhood, in combination with anima projection in which the anima image contains aspects of the natural nutritious and loving mother, and sexual mother, from the matriarchal times.

* A dynamic of wanting to depend emotionally, or even materially, from the relationships-Pluto 7th House, South Node Libra, Saturn being the 2nd House ruler and squaring the nodes from the 8th House of marriage, in Cancer. This has been based both on the unresolved emotional expectations and unresolved traumas of emotional loss, and the impact of these patterns, and the guilt patterns, on the Soul desires and needs for personal actualization-the Saturn/Mercury square the nodes relative to the North Node in Aries in the 5th House; the South Node ruler, Venus, in Taurus-money- being in the 6th, Virgo House.

* Of course the dynamics of wanting to be dependent on relationships, and the dynamics of projection of ideals, have also been compounded by desires for personal humiliation or atonement-the Venus in the 6th House-for the reasons talked about already. A vehicle for such types of humiliation have been experiences of fundamental disillusionment, as required to induce actual knowledge.

* Within the rebelliousness against consensus standards about how to be in relationship, I see the potential for some specific types of relationships that combine several of the above dynamics. An example or model of such types of relationships could be the ‘courtly love’ ideology and the ideals of the Provençal troubadours which flourished in Occitan in the 11th century. I wonder his Soul in some prior lifetime perhaps even composed romantic poetry/songs-Pluto Gemini 7th House, South Node Libra conjunct Orpheus, ruled by Venus conjunct Erato. While it can seem strange that a man who on a later life as Darwin wrote, when pondering the reasons to marry or not marry, that the company of a woman was better than the company of a dog … it is plausible in that the symbols commented reflect the potential to use thought/language forms within relationships, or in order to attract intimate or sexual relationships, operating though as a vehicle to not really know about the actual, concrete, other, who thus remains idealized and serves to project the unresolved emotional expectations and overall subconscious dynamics coming from the early experiences of loss. And, same time, true intimacy is thus avoided to some degree based on the fears of abandonment and loss, and in order to preserve the inner world of images in which the original mourning is still unresolved/denied. Courtly love serves as a model or example for this orientation to relationships in that it combines several of the dynamics:

- rebellion against social institutions, ie. marriage. Courtly love was essentially extra-marital love, or in other words, love for a woman who was married, reflecting women’s desires to liberate from patriarchal marriage. In Dampier’s chart, the Mercury/Saturn 8th House, relative to Pluto 7th House Gemini, South Node in Libra in the 11th House, Moon in the 9th House Virgo;

- necessary rejection by the woman, and submission to the woman’s will (in a way, as historians elaborate, a transference of the relationship with a land-lord): the South Node ruler being in the 6th House.

- rejection by the woman and submission to the woman’s will sets in motion the need for adventures, feats and endeavors that would prove the lover’s obedience to the lady, and his worth. In this the courtly love is linked with the ideals of chivalry. Venus in the 6th House; Mars, ruler of the North Node in Aries, in the 10th House, and the oppositions to Pluto from the 1st House, which are ruled by Jupiter in the 12th House Sagittarius.

- idealization of the lady, connected with the absence of true knowledge and intimacy, and, further, this serving to keep the ‘split’ in the object in which the idealized desires coexist with the most basic and unresolved, repressed sexual urges-both types of topics are tied together in the verses of Provençal poets. In Dampier’s chart, Pluto 7th House ruling the 12th House, Pluto Gemini ruled by Mercury/Saturn in the 8th House with Saturn ruling the 2nd House, Venus Taurus 6th House, Mars in the 10th House.

- of course, the proliferation of inner thoughts and language forms devoted to the lady … which serves to preserve the idealized inner object, and to deny the perceived reality whatever it may be: Pluto Gemini 7th House, Mercury square the nodes, the 3rd House rulers being Neptune/Uranus opposing Pluto; Orpheus conjunct the Libra South Node, Cupido conjunct Mercury-and Cupid opposing Mercury-Cupido being conjunct asteroid Don Quixote, and both being conjunct the south node of Venus, and both the Black Moon Lilith and the Dark Moon; and asteroid Dulcinea .. being conjunct the Venus, in the 6th House, in Taurus. (e.e. cummings had Pluto/Neptune Gemini 1st House, conjunct Dulcinea, ruled by Mercury in the 6th House Scorpio conjunct Uranus, Vesta and Juno all Scorpio 6th House; the South Node is Libra, 5th House, ruled by Venus, which rules Libra on the 6th House cusp, and Venus is conjunct Don Q. ; his 8th House ruler is Jupiter, which is in Cancer, squaring the nodes: “somewhere i have never traveled, gladly beyond any experience, your eyes have their silence … nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals the power of your intense fragility … nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands”).

(It is interesting to further consider that the courtly love ideology is intimately connected with the Cathars, and some of the collective trauma talked about traceable in both Dampier’s and Darwin’s charts, and the prior lives in communities and religious communities, could potentially be related to Catharism. Other of the links would be the dualistic types of though, and gnosticism-Pluto Gemini ruling the 12th House Pluto 3rd House Pisces in Darwin’s, etc.).

What is the essence or root of these types of relatedness patterns? Whatever this essences may be, it obviously implies something about inner dynamics of duality, duplicity or duplication … originating in the traumas of loss, and the unresolved mourning, and a split or fragmentation thereof-Pluto Gemini, ruled by Mercury/Saturn square the South Node in the 11th House, Pluto/Uranus in opposition. The inner workings that create this situation are quite difficult to understand precisely for me. Freud talked about this in his essay on Mourning and Melancholy, based on ideas coming from Abraham, and he proposed some interesting things there, perhaps more interesting in what relates to melancholia or unresolved mourning, than his thoughts on ‘normal’ mourning. However, he later changed his views on this in his essay about the Ego and the Id, and he came to acknowledge that he didn’t understand the topic completely. This topic has also been dealt with by Melanie Klein I think, and later, by Lacan, among others within psychoanalysis. I wonder whether Jung talked about this from a more transpersonal point of view. Please share about this if possible. I’m adding just some few thoughts I have about what the essence of this situation could be in Dampier’s Soul:

First, one very basic fact to consider is that whatever object, or person, we perceive, creates an inner image within the Soul, which is a ‘copy’ or image of the actual object or person: an inner object. Because of Pluto being Gemini, and Mercury being square the nodes, this is an intensified dynamic in Dampier´s Soul: Mercury correlates with the creation or construction of objects. It is because of this duplication of reality in the inner world that we can use imagination or fantasy, as in dreams, in which we can relate to such images, as if they were the actual object or image, without necessarily interfacing with reality after the image has been ‘captured’ or internalized. That Dampier’s imagination and fantasy was quite active can be seen in Pluto ruling the 12th House and being opposed to Neptune 1st House, and Pisces being in the 3rd House. When loss of a loved one is experienced, the actual embodied person is not here any longer; however, the inner object continues to exist, and it continues to constellate the affects, feelings and emotions that existed for the person before the loss. The psyche can become overly invested in the inner object that ‘represents’ the loved one that has been lost. The overinvestment of these inner objects In Dampier´s chart is reflected in Mercury/Saturn square the nodes, being in the 8th House, and of course, in Pluto being Gemini. One situation that leads to such over-investment of the inner object, are unresolved emotions or conflicts that pre-exist to the loss; thus, the inner relation with the inner object constellates the nature of the conflict. Has this been the case in some of the mourning experiences coming into Dampier’s life from his Soul’s evolutionary past? Yes, because, as we have seen in Dampier´s, and in Darwin’s chart, the Soul has been inwardly defined by a conflict between going on his own, and being in relationships, in which relationships, and family ties, have been experienced as a limitation to the freedom to explore and actualize the Soul’s felt special destiny. Prior to these types of loss, a conflict existed in relation with mother figures during the transition from matriarchy to patriarchy, because of the existing desires to be validated from a social point of view, which implied a Soul’s betrayal to the mother or feminine authorities and the knowledge they represented. This has been talked about in more detail in prior posts about Darwin; in Dampier’s chart, this correlates with the Saturn/Mercury in Cancer squaring the nodes in the 8th House, with the South Node in the 11th Aquarian House, etc. Freud postulated that ‘pathological mourning’ originated in an inner identification with the lost object, ie. identification with someone who is dead, which prevented a release of the psychic energy invested on the lost object. I think Freud was wrong in this point. My shot would be that, at least in some cases, it is quite the contrary. It is the resistance to identify with the lost object, ie. the preexisting conflict with the object or an overall emotional detachment or repression, that the mourner fails to experience its own death or necessary transformation that is demanded by the loss-and by the relationship itself. Thus, the inner object is preserved, and the emotions originating in the loss are not fully experienced. In turn, preservation of the inner object intensifies a ‘conflict with reality’, to a point that can become psychotic to some level, in that the pathological mourner or melancholic does not end to assume the loss, and the conflict with the object remains unresolved. In Dampier’s chart, Mercury/Saturn squaring the nodes, in Cancer in the 8th House, being the background which creates the extremity between wanting relationships, or not, and the variety of responses discussed.

These are also symbols of weariness, anhedonia, and acedia, which have impacted on relationships. Relative to Pluto 7th House, Mercury/Saturn square the nodes correlate with wanting the fruit, but not the path to the fruit. It is not lack of love, it is an intensified desire for the object which, though, complicates its path to the object desired, to a point in which the desired object is simultaneously rejected because it seems too difficult to attain-such as the demands of a wife-especially if the choice of the wife has been unrealistic; or, alternatively-Mercury is very dual-it is so concerned with the cares or the path that lead to the desired object, that it becomes incapable to enjoy the fruit when it is available.

Because of these types of prior dynamics, the Soul of Dampier has created quite a big deal of complications in its patterns of relatedness in this series of lifetimes, as a means to recreate many times dynamics of loss and mourning, and guilt and atonement. The resulting weariness and futility in Dampier´s Soul has thus created a relative paralysis in these relationship oriented lifetimes-Mercury/Saturn square the nodes-equaling a resistance to give the necessary steps that would progressively serve to actualize its desires for knowledge and discovery. This has also created a series of complications in the actualization of its career, work, or social role through independent actualization. This is why the Mercury/Saturn square to the nodes resolves through the North Node in the 5th House Aries, ruled by Mars in the 10th House conjunct Vesta, relative to the Pluto polarity point in the 1st House Sagittarius, ruled by Jupiter in the 12th House. And thus, because of choices made in his life as Dampier, he in fact did quite a bit of exploration through his career as a pirate, naturalist and cartographer, and navigated around the world three times.

It seems that little is known by historians about Dampier’s sentimental life. It is known though, that he once married a woman called Judith, the year 1678. It seems he had no offspring from this marriage. I haven’t found the date of the marriage, nor any information about Judith, other than she worked at some court. That year, though, transiting Mars and Venus conjuncted at 25° Taurus, within minutes before the exact natal Venus of Dampier. I don’t know what happened in this marriage. However, that same year Dampier sailed to sea again, and it is not known (or I don’t know) if he ever returned to the married life. Perhaps he became quickly aware that he needed the freedom he couldn’t have within the marital life; perhaps he sailed to sea in order to accomplish feats for his lady. Did Dampier continue to engage in relationships with women who were prostitutes? It is very possible that the answer is yes, based on the symbols already commented. Apart from prostitutes, would he try to manage to have sex with women who had been slaved who that were traded aboard his ship? Some HIStorians state that Dampier-and other English pirates-treated women slaves very well. This can mean several things. With Mercury 8th House, ruling the 7th House Gemini with Pluto Gemini-Mercury conjunct the 2nd House ruler, and ruled by the Moon in the 9th House, and further, Mars/Vesta in the 10th House Libra ruled by Venus in the 6th House-both the 8th and the 6th House correlating with slavery, it seems to me that he would have desired to have sex with some of these women, based on the types of reasons mentioned before.

Very briefly, we can see in Darwin’s chart that some of the complications in personal and intimate relationships, and its implication with criteria about reality within relationships, have been resolved at least to some degree, resulting from choices made in the prior life as Dampier. Not totally resolved, because Mercury Pisces, Balsamic to Pluto in the 3rd House, is still the ruler of Gemini on the 7th House cusp (also, Dulcinea/Black Moon are in the 7th House, with Don Quixote squaring the nodes from the 8th House), and the Mars in Libra square to the planetary nodes in House 1st and 7th correlating with stress within socialization of knowledge, and the adjustment of sexuality to socially valid parameters. However, Mercury is no longer squaring the nodes, and is now culminating a cycle. It seems that Darwin made a realistic choice when marrying his second cousin Emma- despite his fears about incest, and did spend quite happy times with the family he had with her-even though, as we know, they did experience intense grief and mourning through recreating experiences of loss of children. On the overall, in this lifetime as Darwin there is no such intense intellectual complication about relationships issues, which allowed to create an intense focus on knowledge of Nature itself. Since I didn’t mention this before, the stress in socialization of knowledge within parameters versus freedom to ‘know’ and discover, is also a very intense dynamic in the prior lifetime as Dampier. In Dampier’s birthchart, this is symbolized too in the Mars 10th House Libra square to the nodes of Pluto, and by Pluto 7th House being Gemini, opposing Neptune/Uranus in the 1st House Sagittarius, and ruled by Mercury/Saturn square the nodes. Because Pluto Gemini is ruled by Mercury square the nodes, ruling the 7th House and the intercepted Virgo in the 9th House, and because Venus is in the 6th House, Dampier would feel that he didn’t know or understand enough, and would inwardly feel to be less than honest if trying to present his scientific or philosophical views to the public. Thus, the focus of that lifetime was more about travelling and making observations, and writing about his journeying rather than a general theoretical elaboration (Mercury in the 8th House in Cancer suggests that an intellectual system was being gestated). Darwin continued doing travelling when he was young, but with the Pisces Mercury Balsamic to Pluto/Jupiter, now it was rather about culminating the need for observation, and more about giving form, order and classifications, and further, intuiting the general patterns within an enormous amount of information already collected, ie. to articulate an overall theory, as we know. Now the Soul is deeply reflective and inwardly attuned in order to create a progressive, linear order of materials already collected. It would be as if the early travelling he did had the intention of picking the ‘examples’ –Mercury- that his Soul knew would serve to prove the patterns he had been elaborating along prior lifetimes, including the life as Dampier, on which he would be elaborating along several years to come until the Origin of Species. It is very interesting that, because the need for external exploration was now more or less completed in this cycle, and the intellectual focus was directed to the inner world of knowledge that needed to be given a concrete form, this by itself allowed for a type of life that was also more emotionally integrated. Not totally, of course, because there was still many unresolved issues coming from the past, and a high level of stress. And this, in turn, implied a lifetime in which unresolved mourning would manifest and be recreated in more conscious ways (Mercury/Ceres/Pluto Balsamic conjunct, trine Uranus conjunct the North Node). And, because Pluto/Jupiter are New phase within the 3rd House Pisces, while Pluto/Mercury are Balsamic, the creation of a linear order, serving to demonstrate the general patterns or natural laws (Virgo intercepted in the 9th House, Jupiter/Mercury Balsamic), would in turn promote or trigger a new cycle in which the Soul of Darwin would desire to intuit patterns behind the patterns, laws behind the laws, leading to an inner pondering about the Creator of all things, thus beginning to emotionally open to what could ultimately address the unresolved mourning issues-Soul and ultimate meaning of life, beyond the temporal and finite.

It is really wonderful that you made the judgements you did about the nature of your own work on this, and that you have now adjusted it in the ways that you have to reflect the changes you wanted to make. Your points are well made, and well taken.

Just checking in. I've now started Saturn, just a small amount but I've finally got a start on it yesterday. It's still absolutely crazily hectic in my life, as amongst many other things going on in my personal circumstances right now I am currently trying to hold down two jobs, but after next week hopefully that will ease up a bit.

Although my aim is to have this done by the end of the week I may not quite make that, but I'll be trying as hard as I can to keep chipping away at it in any spare moments I get till I get it posted. Thank you so much for your patience, I also feel very grateful that this really valuable journey we've all been on is coming closer to completion.

Thank you so much for waiting for me ... unfortunately Chiron hasn't quite finished with me yet, and I've had another health setback, some slipped discs that happened back in May have been recently diagnosed three weeks ago (this is completely unrelated to the heavy metals, which have all been fixed and have steadily remained that way, so still plenty to celebrate there).

I can still work, just more slowly and I've chipped away when I can at Darwin's Saturn and it is nearing completion. So it wont be long now, I will be able to post within the next 4 - 5 days, hopefully less. Thank you Gonzalo, Gray, and Ari too for also waiting so patiently.

The signs are all based on one of four astrological elements, which are fundamental constituents of the Zodiac.

The Fire element is the energetic spirit that invigorates and animates everything, bringing a vivid focus to the present. It is through this special focus that the intrinsic meaning behind all appearances and events can be intuitively seen, and it is through this focus that a keen interest in the future is naturally developed, and via enthusiasm, effortlessly maintained. It is through the fire of passion that our desires so often become inflamed into life, or are over-indulged. And it is through Fire that individual identity, the self, is discovered and deepened. Fire searches for vision, and when the Fire of our own self and truth starts arising within, even just a flicker of it, then the innate purpose of our whole life at the soul level is also correspondingly kindled, stirred into consciousness.

The Air element is mind and mental connectivity in all its manifestations, and the intrinsic mental faculties that arise from mind – e.g. curiosity, cognition, understanding, and communication. Air is breathing, thoughts and thinking, evaluation and analysis, building ideas into concepts, records and knowledge, relating things and people to each other, creating organisational frameworks of all kinds, and making social connections and networks of all types on all scales. Air is about making distinctions, developing intellect and viewpoint, discerning proportion and balance, finding objectivity and perspective - and ultimately silence.

The Water element is the domain of feelings and emotions, moods, and psychic attunement to objects, events and other beings. Through Water the organic relationships that exist between people, animals, plants, soil and rock can be absorbed into our awareness, becoming emotional nourishment. Feelings are closer to the Soul than thoughts and the physical body, and are the way in which humans grow in comprehension and compassion. Psychic and emotional awareness and sensitivity combined with understanding of oneself, the environment and others helps develop the intelligent aspect of consciousness. It is also through Water that the connection we have to all that exists can be experienced on a soul level. However if our feelings or emotions are blocked over a sufficient period of time we start to become crippled in the heart, and that then causes suffering in the soul. Water flows, and it is when feelings can flow freely within our self, between ourselves and others, and between ourselves and the environment that life can develop in the heart and soul, that love can arise from within, and spread as warmth and beauty to all around.

The Earth element is matter, the material - physical substance in all its energetic expressions, its ever-changing forms. Physical substance is that which has shape, and mass - and together these two things (shape and mass) create form. The Earth element encompasses all such physical forms.

Shape is the amount and proportions of space that an object occupies. And mass is the intrinsic inertia of an object (it’s resistance to being moved), and also its gravitational pull on or to all neighbouring objects. Thus the Earth element exerts a grounding influence on us all.

Individual particles of matter however manifest both as pure energy as well as objects having a fixed form. This is because essentially energy and matter are one and the same, even if this is not obvious in the view we have of anything through the senses in the physical realm. Thus forms can be, and are always potentially capable of being, modified, and is why when our inner psychological state changes and as a result we move into a different energy, this becomes correspondingly reflected in our external world, even in a physical way. Such a visible expression of cause and effect helps us to calibrate our desires and integrate our efforts. Regardless of our evolutionary stage, it helps to guide us towards intentions and actions based on an expression of goodness.

However matter is generally perceived as being opposite to spirit and Fire antagonistic to Earth. And in everyday life this is all too often how it plays out – Fire can often seem self-important and impractical, and Earth can seem overly mundane, materialistic and serious. Yet on a deeper level Earth and Fire are complementary, matter and spirit are connected in an intricate relationship. It is the Earth element that gives a context for our emotional and mental development, and the conscious unfolding of the purpose of any incarnation as we live it. Purpose emanating unconsciously from the Soul, stimulated into consciousness by Fire as Fire, and then consciously integrated and directed throughout one’s life by the Sun (ruler of the central Fire sign). It is through the interaction of spirit with the physical, material dimension of life that we humans can grow from the experiences created, the lessons generated, and the inherent meaning this reveals to us on a soul level. In this way the Earth element is a vital formative factor in the evolutionary journey of the Soul.

Saturn is the ruling planet of Capricorn, the third and most developed of the Earth signs (and thus the most complex). Capricorn holds within it the assimilated knowledge and understanding intrinsic to both Taurus and Virgo, and through its own learning brings the Earth element development to a culmination. Capricorn is at home in the world, as the world is made of matter, and matter Capricorn understands. And as the final Earth sign, Capricorn is indeed the potential master of matter, and being Capricorn’s ruler it is that towards which Saturn intrinsically strives, although in such a quest motive is everything. Without a sense of higher purpose Capricorn psychology can easily generate behavior that is short-sighted, highly self-serving, callous and potentially ruthless. Capricorn views things on a global scale, and often sees the world first and foremost and as a huge resource that can be exploited for maximum gain (at least through patriarchal eyes it does). Only after that does it see the world as a place where we can have a home, and where we can be at home (the Cancer polarity) – which we can manage sustainably. Yet when Capricorn desires to do good, via Saturn it can transform matter into objects of sheer wonder (e.g. the Pyramids, Stonehenge, the Taj Mahal), or create organisations for practically managing and helping the world (e.g. the United Nations, Red Cross) and organise (sometimes very) beneficial actions for the benefit of the Earth and it’s dependents (e.g. national Environmental Protection movements, Global Fund-raising concerts for Relief funds).

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Mars, signifying our conscious desires, is the last outermost personal planet. Moving beyond the personal, Jupiter’s big energy quickly pulls us into experiencing things on a larger scale than ourselves or our personal concerns. It opens us up to possibilities and understandings that are of a global or cosmic nature or concern. To be part of what is happening simultaneously everywhere is a very expanding experience, and is where Jupiter naturally tries to take us – forever into more expansion. However in order to assimilate this beneficially, we need to synthesize this whirlwind journey of experience into understanding. Fortunately this generally happens naturally over time (more or less), and to the extent it does we are able to develop a panoramic viewpoint and extensive wisdom.

Out beyond Jupiter, Saturn also has a far-reaching influence. It cannot be otherwise, as at least in the physical universe matter is everywhere, and our bodies are made of this very same matter. Chemical elements are simply atoms of a single kind. And all the chemical elements of which Earth and everything on it are made have all originated from outer space. Hydrogen is the lightest, simplest and most abundant chemical in the universe, and is the principal kind of atom in stars. Due to the intense temperature and pressure at the core of stars thermonuclear fusion turns these hydrogen atoms into helium, and then as the different types of stars age, between them into all the other chemical atoms in the known universe, which are ejected at (or near) the end of the stars life into space. And it is from these chemical elements in space that Earth has formed, and it is from Earthly chemical elements and molecules that our bodies have been created. And so the actual material atoms which our body is made up of, all of it, originated from outer space. We are immersed in a universal sea of matter and Saturn, the ruler of Capricorn, is the form and functioning of this matter.

In this way Saturn always reflects that we are an intrinsic part of the entire physical universe - a universe that is full of forms operating to and within universal laws – and as such via our physical forms, our bodies, our existence is also governed by these very same natural universal laws - physics, chemistry and biology. Although through Saturn we are connected to the whole physical universe, because of Saturn we are also bound into form and at any point in time must operate within the confines of our body, and the environment it is in. This has a natural restraining effect on the potentially never-ending expansion of Jupiter.

The first introduction we have to Saturn in our life in a tangible inner way usually comes about the age of 7 at our first (transiting) Saturn square (our natal Saturn), when we achieve our first major consolidation. Just as matter clumps together because of the force of gravity, with Saturn our psychological material and understanding contracts from time to time into a more solid psychological structure within us, into a “knowing” that has become so definite and real for us (having being born from long arduous experience) that it settles “into our bones” as our personal authority. This 7 yearly consolidation that happens throughout life, and the midway points in between (at the semisquare) reflected by Saturn’s transit of our chart, either gradually crystalizes us into an overall psychological state of maintenance and defence, or one of strengthening resilience, maturity and readiness for further challenges - whatever they may be.

In one way, in terms of perception and understanding, Saturn is a measure of where we’re at - depending on how we relate to the matter in our lives. Do we identify so much with the material that we forget that it is not simply a black and white substance - it is also energy in a form? And this energy can move from form to form. Once we understand this we can also realise that the forms matter takes are not absolute, and can stop becoming slavishly identified with the forms in our life. From this we can understand that it takes energy to build anything into a form, and also that the only permanence a form has is that created by maintaining the input of energy into it. This applies as well to the form of our body (and thus in many ways to its health), the form and organization of our situations, the form of our personal life and the involvements in our relationships, the shape and arrangements of our social networks, to the whole pattern and configuration of our entire world structure. These things all need energy to maintain them in their current form, or to build them into a different form, into something more necessary or desirable. Otherwise degeneration sets in and the form starts breaking down more and more, until all the components making up the form are released from that form.

When forms are understood like this the “burden” that is so often associated with Saturn is able to be changed into an acceptance of matter - of the material, of the actual nature of it. But if we don’t understand form in this way then we remain grossly identified with the body and material objects, and the process that Saturn correlates to can be variously experienced as frustrating, restricting, unforgiving, unyielding, onerous, heavy etc. But as it becomes understood - that at times working with matter is just as much working with energy as it is working with something solid, then gradually Saturn can become more and more satisfying, and eventually can be enjoyed in full.

Just as matter (Earth) builds upon itself in so many different ways to create all the physical forms (Saturn) in the universe, as discussed above Saturn also represents the forms of the mundane conditions and situations that are part and parcel of our personal and social lives. And on a more subjective and intimate personal level Saturn also represents the psychological walls we build for protection and within which we house our “sense of self”, and the scaffolding we use as we build more substance into our sense of self and extend our control over our self and our environment. With this inner development and building up of psychological substance in our sense of self, Saturn represents the inner platforms we establish to support all development, new ventures and extension into the world. So Saturn represents the forms matter takes, the mundane conditions of our lives, our ability to physically protect ourselves from the environment, and also the inner psychological forms and structures we use to protect our sense of our self, also to develop it further and make it more substantial. And regardless of what particular form the conditions of our lives and our sense of self are in, it takes a constant input of energy to keep that form in place.

These characteristics of Saturn are always modified in manifestation however by the structure (Saturn) of one’s cultural environment. In some countries oppressive social and economic conditions are maintained by a constant input of energy from a tyrannical regime to make sure things stay that way. In other countries this also happens but not so overtly and some mundane self-determination is possible. And in other places it is relatively much easier for individuals to determine their mundane conditions because they are able to effectively alter the nature and quantity of energy they are putting into their personal, social, economic and political environment at will. And thus a change in the form of their conditions naturally follows, which is then correspondingly reflected in a changed “form” within, a different sense of self - inner and outer are always connected (the Cancer/Capricorn polarity in this context).

Because Saturn correlates with the form and functioning of matter, and matter is regarded as “real” (actual, has a verifiable existence which no-one disputes), Saturn is associated with reality. And this core characteristic of Saturn is where it is the most revealing. Our core reality is that we need to survive in the world and this determines the primary experiences we have. To effectively deal with the world we have to navigate all its structures, starting with the physical reality. We can’t walk through walls, or walk on water, and there is no need – we can thrive perfectly well without doing either. Then the reality of the social environment is huge. The world is massively populated with people, and national boundaries are a reality, as real as any cold concrete prison floor if you deservedly or through bad luck end up on one for actually or apparently transgressing the laws of any nation. Then within that the cultural expectations of a country, the acceptable customary responses in all the various social situations – which are not enforceable by law but nevertheless are responsible for a multitude of hidden walls and doors wherever you go that are just as real as any prison floor.

We also need to interact with others in our environment to procure shelter, food and clothing, and collectively meeting these basic needs brings us together in our local communities and the larger cities and wider provinces within which they reside. And the relationships and activities we have in these settings establish the external reality of our everyday lives – based on our survival needs. And parallel to this we have all our personal relationships - from mere acquaintances to the closest of friends, from passing lovers to long-term partners, from immediate family to the widest of extended family connections, from people we struggle with or who struggle with us, to open or hidden enemies … all our personal relationships also contribute to our reality in varying degrees of significance.

Obviously we have this basic desire to survive. But beyond that we have myriads of other desires that are all based on needing certain experiences. And it is in the process of pursuing our desires that we create all the structures in our life. These structures that we create on an ongoing basis on many different levels channel our experiences along a singular path, or along several paths - a path or paths of our own making. Saturn is about managing this aspect of our lives, this whole process, and involves setting goals and steadily working towards them. The more purposeful (Sun) our path through life is, the more constructive our total experiences are, and this is then reflected structurally (Saturn) in our consciousness as developing (Saturn) awareness. And this in turn constitutes our core inner reality, its structural actuality. The level of our awareness and the proportion of our consciousness to unconsciousness is what it is, and it is Saturn that correlates to this undeniable inner structural reality. Although we can always deny it to ourselves and/or hide it from others as much as we like, we wake up every day exactly where we are in consciousness, with not a fraction less and not a fraction more of it than that which we have. This is a Saturn phenomenon, “suchness”, as certain as physical matter is what it is – and any imagination to the contrary happens within consciousness not outside it. Saturn represents all that cannot be denied.

It is this core nature of Saturn, correlating to reality that is also the key to mastering many of its challenges. If we stay with what is subjectively true for us, and also what is objectively factual, we stay with our own reality. But doing this can sometimes be a challenge in many ways - to our ego if it contradicts either our inner image of our self or our sense of personal safety (Cancer); it can be threatening to our social respectability (Capricorn) or to personal and social support (Leo/Libra/Scorpio/Aquarius); or it can even put our physical life in danger (Pluto). Because it can be very frightening in these situations, a common Saturnian reaction can also be to hide from the truth. And here is where Saturn gets revealing, as the moment we do this we move into the false. And because Saturn correlates to the substance of any form, when we move into the false we lose the inner substance that the very certainty itself of the truth always bestows. The resulting lack of inner emotional stability can easily affect us physically and is precisely why lie detectors work.

This whole area is the true battleground of Saturn. For when we face our vulnerabilities and fears - our feelings of inadequacy, our fear of failure, our loneliness, our self-denial; when we are feeling blocked in our self-expression or foiled in our external progress, or defeated in our contests with situations or others, disappointment of all kinds … all these feelings in ourselves (often labelled personal “weaknesses” by the critical face of Saturn in ourselves or others) are things Saturn is often embarrassed by, ashamed of, wants to hide, to camouflage … but which instead need to be acknowledged and lived. And in doing so, paradoxically this immediately brings inner strength which helps deal with each difficulty. But the more we push the reality away the more we become separated from our own truth and the inner relaxation, calm and freedom that brings. And always with Saturn the way through this battle is to take responsibility for the outcome to any situation as much as possible. Operating as objectively and efficiently as one can, and being determined to find a solution, one learns to keep digging deeper within oneself, to persevere until the solution to the problem is found.

On an individual level these are the main functions of Saturn - to force us to acknowledge and process all our emotions, to replace our fears with strength, to develop the capacity to solve our own problems, to grow through our experiences, and to become authentic through living our own reality whatever it is, and in so doing developing an inner centre that is real. It is through our own experience that true growth comes, and it is this that becomes our real knowledge – everything else is borrowed knowledge, good maybe as an inspiration and a guide, but not as something to hold onto forever. As we develop more and more of our own knowing from our own experience the more we consolidate our sense of self, thus eventually becoming free from the need for validation from external authority; validation from one’s own true inner authority in the end becoming more relevant and meaningful. Because the more we dig deep into ourselves to explore and uncover who we are, the more we become integrated, and the more we can actualise our purpose (Sun). And only we can do that – no one else ever can. And once we understand this all comparison becomes meaningless, even if it continues at some level out of deep habit.

This is one of the gifts of Saturn – integrity. Eventually coming to realise that unless we have experienced something for ourselves we have nothing. All the wisdom of Jupiter means very little until it also becomes our own truth, as a result of our own experiencing. By working hard to root out all our conditioned responses and reactions to everyone and everything we eventually return to our innocence, and as we gradually remove the false from ourselves and our lives we progressively reveal our essence. However from the beginning of life most of us have been (to varying degrees) impacted by others on a personal, social and collective basis - conditioned to be other than our natural selves. And as well most of us bring into each life a legacy (Saturn) of unconscious conditioned responses and reactions to all manner of things – things from the past still unresolved and carried within our Soul (Pluto). So one of the core learnings of Saturn is to develop our capacity to be authentic in each life situation we find ourselves in, including all our current faults and imperfections, to be real – this is who we are. To realise that no God or Goddess is guaranteed to treat us as special in any way, and that if we want a certain result we need to try and create it ourselves. Taking responsibility in this way paradoxically also brings freedom. If we assume full responsibility for our situation, or at least our attitude and response to it, then we are simultaneously free to act in our response in any way we feel to. We become neither beholden to nor dependent on anyone. But it doesn’t mean being a loner, or not accepting help, it simply means we wake up to and start actualising our potential. Capricorn, the 10th house and its cusp all represent the area of the sky directly overhead at birth, from where the planets bear down on us most strongly. Correspondingly, this part of the chart represents the area where the influence we have on our environment is potentially the most pronounced, and Saturn shows the process we go through in making that potential influence actual and real. So now we can look at Saturn in Darwin’s chart.

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When looking at Darwin’s chart specifically from the point of view of Saturn, there are several key things to register. Firstly Saturn is in the 12th house with Scorpio on the cusp, and in Sagittarius. The next thing is that Capricorn (the sign Saturn rules) is on the 2nd house cusp. Thirdly the natural Capricorn house (10th house) starts where its cusp is, and this 10th house cusp (in the Porphyry system) is where the Midheaven (MC) is in the chart, and the MC is in Libra. This gives us the central experiential framework and needs involved in Darwin’s Saturn energy and its expression – the 12th/2nd/10th houses, with the natural understandings of Sagittarius/Scorpio/Capricorn/Libra governing it’s functioning.

Darwin’s worldly process (Saturn) is naturally going to be centred in his search for ultimate meaning and experience in his life – with Saturn in the 12th house, and in a close balsamic conjunction to Neptune (which is also in its own 12th house, the last house in the natural zodiac, and a balsamic conjunction also representing the end of a cycle — all greatly amplifying the significance of Saturn being in the 12 house in this situation). That ultimate meaning will be derived from an expanded viewpoint regarding, and an intuitional understanding of, himself at the Soul level - Saturn is in Sagittarius (overview, understanding) with the ruler of Saturn (Jupiter, expansion, intuition) in a new conjunction to Pluto (the Soul). Darwin would feel (Jupiter in Pisces) mental exploration (Jupiter in 3rd) to be a natural part of this search. He would have many thoughts (3rd) about his life in general, about himself as a person, and about his true nature (Pisces), which would all stimulate his search for that meaning.

With Scorpio on the 12th house cusp an unconscious drive for inner transformation would also be a part of his search for deep meaning. He would feel unsettled and frustrated at a Soul level due to many uncompleted desires (Scorpio) percolating in his unconscious (12th) – desires to know and experience the inner or hidden secrets of life (Scorpio). Whenever these desires floated into his subconscious via dreams at night or dreams during the day, or more clearly into his mind via sudden insights or as visions (12th), they would inject new material into his awareness and his search for meaning. This would be both deeply invigorating yet also highly confusing at the same time, but he would constantly sense that the clues to what he was looking for would be found through the active use of his mind (the ruler of the 12th house -Saturn’s house- is in the 3rd house conjunct Mercury).

So the reason Darwin was driven to use his mind so much stemmed not just from the sizeable past life momentum he had developed in using it (Pluto in 3rd), or the huge energy he had for mental activity in this life (large stellium in 3rd), but also his deep need to release repressed desires that kept seeping up from his Soul, mostly into his subconscious mind but sometimes directly into his consciousness. These fragments became mixed into his life on two different levels – that of his spiritual yearnings and his sense of unity in life (12th), and that of his everyday life (3rd house). The effect of this would be to keep him focussed on his need to find some way to bring his mind to a point of restful equilibrium (packed 3rd house with PPP in the 9th), through satisfying his deeper longings for a personal experience of oneness that he could objectively know and validate (Saturn in 12th conjunct Neptune in Sagittarius, ruler Jupiter in Pisces in the 3rd … psychologically Saturn is about finding one’s authenticity, which leads to one’s personal truth, and needing to objectively validate that; the 12th house, Neptune and Pisces are the experience, energy and attunement to Oneness; Sagittarius and Jupiter are seeking understanding, knowledge, the truth; and the activity of the 3rd is gathering as much information as possible, and classifying that information).

Objective validation always involves at least the 10th house, and to an extent the 11th house, because public involvement and agreement is necessary for external validation, and external validation is required for anything to be truly objective (Saturn). Thus the results of Darwin’s quest needed to manifest in the 10th, so that the Saturn energy which was the driving force behind the search could be satisfied, due to the results being able to be objectively verified. And Mars (conscious desires) in the 10th house provides a good avenue for release of all the fragments of uncompleted desires arising in his 12th house (via the Scorpio cusp) to become consciously channelled into his worldly life (10th) and acted upon (Mars). With Mars in this position (10th) Darwin clearly intended to create as much as possible the means to actively release in a definitive way (10th) any repressions that surfaced in his life, in order to allow his search for ultimate meaning to proceed uninhibited (Mars). With Libra on the 10th house cusp he would generally be mindful of the social limitations surrounding his behavior, yet with Mars in the 10th the need to assert his right to individual expression would be pronounced (10th), and no doubt on occasions tend to be extreme (Libra).

A key factor in this search for ultimate meaning in life – a search that will involve very personal elements from deep within Darwin mixed with much public involvement – will be his needs concerning survival, values and self-worth (Capricorn, the sign Saturn rules, is on the 2nd house cusp). His innate needs and understandings in this area will constantly condition his evaluation of options and priorities (Saturn) concerning his efforts to establish and prove himself in the world (Saturn), and in how he manifests the results of those efforts (10th). With Capricorn on the 2nd house Darwin’s efforts in life for tangible achievement (Saturn) would have been done with self-preservation issues firmly in the back of his mind much of the time, as the 2nd house is about one’s survival and what is needed for that. This would have brought caution as a value into his methods of operating, which would have manifested as a “don’t upset the authorities” kind of restraint in his mind regarding whatever he did. This is because Capricorn on the 2nd house is about taking responsibility for one’s survival needs, and thus valuing whatever endeavour is made towards this a great deal due to the usually considerable personal effort invested (Capricorn). At the same time being aware of the impact (Saturn) that the world (Capricorn) can have on one’s survival needs, for example if certain interpretation of laws, or the changing of laws, puts one at a personal disadvantage. With Capricorn on the 2nd house cusp there would be an awareness of the value in presenting himself in a conservative fashion that would not ruffle the feathers of anyone in authority. This would tend to further moderate his Mars in the 10th need to have freedom to act upon whatever desires arose at any time. The possibility of some tension around his desires at times is also reflected by the FQ square between his Moon in Capricorn (also in the 2nd house) and Mars in the 10th.

The design here is clear … the conscious desire nature (Mars – where we first glimpse our Soul’s desires as they arise instinctively into consciousness), is tightly structured in Darwin’s consciousness. Mars is naturally a fiery, instinctive, single pointed, active and highly assertive energy. And Darwin’s is placed in the 10th house, potentially a position of maximum influence on the environment. However it is hemmed in from all sides which creates the effect of channelling it – being in Libra (its natural opposite sign) its focus becomes diversified with a need to consider other people and to act in a balanced way; and the square from the Moon in Capricorn introduces a personal need to always be responsible; while the quincunx from Jupiter makes sure any out of place ego play or excessive selfishness backfires more often than not. So the only direction in which Mars can really expand is via it’s mutual reception with Venus (the ruler of Mars is in Mars’ own sign) which is an easy flow of energy into the house Venus is in, the 3rd, where as we know there is a “mountain of work” to be done, the perfect place for Mars’ energy to be channelled.

Having Mars expressing itself towards the world from Saturn’s natural house in such a controlled (Capricorn) fashion, distributing the results of the 3rd house research to significant people (Libra), is an excellent structure (Saturn form) in Darwin’s chart for maximum output and beneficial results. And the underlying reason for such a form being created, through which Darwin had no choice but to operate, was because of the Full sesquiquadrate from Pluto in the 3rd to Mars in the 10th. The Soul required Darwin in this life to expand his understanding of the nature of the existing social and regulatory customs and pathways in his society via his work to fulfil it’s purpose, which was to get the recognition from other scientists that he craved (Sun and Chiron in Aquarius, with Chiron squaring the lunar nodal axis), and also hopefully therefore as a by-product, an acceptance of his work and thus material progress (Moon in Capricorn in 2nd).

Saturn is about structure, and at this point we can see that the chart itself is in a bowl shaped structure (all planets evenly spread out within one half of the chart only), with Mars the leading edge of the bowl. This shape denotes a self-conscious person due to holding all their energies within themselves (in the bowl) creating a containment of themselves, and thus an elevated awareness of themselves. Darwin’s energies were all assembled in the eastern (Ascendant) side of his chart, which is the hemisphere of the chart in which all the energies are rising towards the Midheaven, and are thus in the process of gaining in relative strength and influence as they approach the central point in the sky overhead. This creates an energy system that tends to impact itself on its environment (as opposed to the situation where all the planets are in the western, Descendant, side of the chart creating a receptive energy system that is easily impacted upon by the environment).

Darwin was indeed pregnant with a great mission and needed to be in some kind of control of his environment in order to facilitate his progress, and this spatial arrangement (Saturn) of his planets in the chart, and what it allows, shows a coordinated strategy (Saturn) in operation by the Soul in terms of aligning everything possible in favour of success in this lifetime. Because all of Darwin’s energies were contained within him the way they were, it meant he was also simultaneously aware of the corresponding emptiness in his experience reflected by the other (empty) half of his chart (there is no currently activated energy there, no planets). This sets up within him its own dynamic of uncertainty about everything that empty half represents – he simply has no direct experience of it – and this can easily become a frustration in itself, and a powerful motivation to fill that emptiness with something.

In Darwin’s case his Soul has set up this arrangement of his energies, with Saturn (along with Neptune) in a commanding position in the occupied half of the chart, as Darwin very much needed to contain all his energy, desire and purpose as much as possible so that he could coordinate a life of meticulous application into a grand result. It was this result (Saturn) that once produced meant he would have something to give to the world, something he would be able to flood the empty half of his chart with. But until he had the result he needed to contain his total energies so that they were more easily able to be channelled virtually en masse into the rigorous scientific process necessary to do what he had to do. Here we are seeing in stunning clarity (visually, graphically) how Saturnian requirements dictated the exact shape, the precise psychological form required to hold the Soul’s consciousness for optimum fulfilment of Darwin’s desires. Which would be achieved through acting upon desires in a controlled way (as previously discussed), and fulfilling them in a productive manner (Mars in 10th) thus leading into the new experience signified by the empty half of the chart, starting with the 9th house containing the coveted PPP.

So these are central things to register, and in so doing we have outlined the areas of his life where Darwin is going to be engaged in the process of actualizing his potential to influence society (Saturn), the approach he will take as he does that, and the understandings that are behind that process and that will moderate it.

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Let’s now have a look at Darwin’s past lives to see how events have developed in relation to Saturn. The Soul’s very distant past has been extensively covered in detail in previous posts so we will just summarize it in relation to how it has influenced the evolution of Saturn. We know that the Soul of Darwin has not always been late 3rd stage individuated. In its consensus days it had deep and seemingly endless struggles (Saturn) with survival with loss of family lives and deep prolonged stress and suffering as a result. This steadily led to a great wounding to it’s self-worth, and after lifetimes of physical, emotional and mental hardship, agony and deep guilt the Soul became hopelessly depressed. Feeling an utter failure the soul looked for ways to escape society, which resulted in much time spent in institutional isolation of various kinds. With unending time to reflect this in turn gradually brought about a great disillusionment within the Soul - the combined effect of all that had come before (Neptune in 12th). And because Neptune is ruled by Jupiter which is in Pisces, and Jupiter is ruled by Neptune in the 12th …. there would have seemed to be no escape from this deep depression and disillusionment (please reference previous posts for all the astrological signatures relating Saturn and Neptune to all the planetary SNs and this past life context).

Languishing in such psychological pain it is highly possible that the personality has then tried to take its life, commit suicide, as an attempt at the ultimate escape (Saturn balsamic conj Neptune 12th). With such a sense of futility (Saturn in 12th) having reached to the Soul level (Scorpio on 12th house cusp) a highly desperate state of affairs has manifested, and suicide may have seemed a perfectly viable option. If so, such an experiment would have obviously failed in terms of permanent ending of the Soul, as that is not possible. And after the act the Soul would have reviewed the life, and manifested the next life registering that suicide was not an option anymore. If this was what happened, then once such an extreme action has been experienced life has a new edge to it.

However these lives were also the turning point for the Soul, even though the inner despair would have been more intense than ever, as from this ultimately desperate position it sparked the Soul “breaking out on its own (SNs in 1st) in search for more meaning in life via a huge desire to escape from the mundane – the result of a courageous and defiant reaction which had arisen up within the Soul as a result of years of struggle and hardship which the Soul had believed in for a very great number of lives out of sheer necessity because that was the Soul’s primary experience for such a long time”. And we know that point was probably when the Soul of Darwin started its journey away from the Consensus. However with Pallas in a crescent square to Saturn, there is still an imprint in the Soul structure from those very distant, distant times, the sense of inner compression is still there after so long … an ambivalence in the psyche, a lingering unconscious fear of failure and a subtle temptation to leave the body as one possible way of dealing with that.

We know that from that point however the Soul has in a way never looked back. From one extreme to another, it’s reaction at the Soul level to being stuck in hardship and misery for so long gradually manifested as more and more restlessness, a great thirst to travel and experience many different cultures (SNs of Mars & Uranus in Sag 1st, SN of Jup in 1st). And along the way the Soul’s mind engaged and expanded itself in all the ways previously discussed, leading to the current life with Sat balsamic to Nep in Sag as a result. And now after all this travelling and studying of nature Darwin has seen a great deal, and been changed a great deal. He has become highly creative and sensitive (all the Pisces factors etc.), and he knows in his bones (Saturn) that there is more to life than what can be seen (conj to Neptune and in 12th) and he wants to know what that is very, very badly. So in this life, in what further ways will Saturn structure Darwin’s life and conscious experience?

Firstly with Saturn in Sagittarius Darwin has chosen a democratic country with a capitalist economy in which to be born – a “free” country. This was a vital ingredient that has given him an open field in which to pursue his desires, a wonderful freedom of movement, speech and action. Secondly, for all the reasons previously given, via his Capricorn 2nd house he was able to create a basis for solid financial support. With survival and his work taken care of his only other desire was concerning a family, which he managed to conveniently pluck from the existing family structure. So these structures facilitated the basic fulfilment of his core desires – survival, work and family.

Once the macro structures of one’s life are in place (as above), we need smaller structures, inner platforms, to facilitate development of our existing work and new ventures. For Darwin he needed to create plans, record his ideas, devise experiments, create organising and classifying systems, prepare budgets and apply for funding etc. Much of this involved his Mercury FQ square Saturn, and represented a significant challenge to him. Darwin would have been under a lot of tension often, just dealing with the fact this all needed doing and in finding the form and mechanism for these things – the FQ square is a crisis in action and these kinds of tasks were not necessarily interesting to him nor initially natural (with Saturn in Sagittarius and Mercury in Pisces he was first and foremost hungry for the big picture) but this Saturn square forced him to become disciplined early on. His desires (Mars) for publically (10th) verifiable results (Saturn in Sag) absolutely necessitated perfection (Saturn conj Neptune) in these administration areas and thus he had no choice but to develop his Mercury Saturn square to its fullest potential or otherwise suffer enormous inner conflict around his work. It was also a very beneficial development as he needed his logical mind to be impeccable in its ability to communicate all kinds of information to all kinds of people both written and orally, and only by developing such a disciplined Mercury was this possible.

Helping ease the way in all his work related concerns and relationships of course was his Venus FQ trine to Saturn. This brought a great deal of personal confidence and professional structure into relationships that would have opened doors that were vital. Combined with his Capricorn Moon, even as a young person he could exhibit a worldly maturity that was attractive to adults much older than him, and without these important connections he would never had been able to do what he did. With Mars in Libra clearly indicating his Soul’s desires for professional (10th) relationships, Saturn trine Venus gave him the capacity to truly fulfil that desire. It would also have allowed him to easily attract women if he so chose to when feeling sexual. He was married but concealed (Saturn in 12th) flirting may have been an interesting pastime (Venus in Aries in 3rd) to him, although it’s unlikely to have ever amounted to anything more than that (Saturn is usually too confined by an awareness of responsibilities and repercussions).

So these were some of the ways in which Darwin’s external experiences were shaped by Saturn structuring, which in turn affected how he actualized his potential to influence society. But perhaps more interesting is how his inner world was structured. With Saturn in the 12th conjunct Neptune Darwin was a very hard person to fathom, sometimes referred to as an enigma by his peers. To understand this we first need to explain the significance of the 12th house. The 12th house is the final (and natural Pisces) house, a water house.

The sense we have of ourselves is built up in many layers, starting with our instinctive urges in Aries and the 1st house, and any new conjunctions in the chart. These are all our “new beginning” points, where we act automatically if we are not very conscious or in danger, but otherwise spontaneously when we are properly conscious. We get a slight feeling or sense of ourselves from these perceptions and actions but it is usually fleeting (unless of course it was traumatic as in an accident). Even when we have to pause before deciding on an issue or engaging in some daily process, the action we are taking might impact our sense of who we are slightly more, but it tends to fade on a daily basis. However if we have to act vigorously in any situation, one inner result of that is that it wakes our consciousness up a bit, impacts us more strongly – the blood might rush, so it can jolt us and that gives us a much greater sense of ourselves, which can last up to a few days or a week or more. And all these things on different layers of experience are going on at the same time, so it’s all building up in layers, and in this way our sense of ourselves is always assembling itself, and then fading away as new events bring new experiences with fresh impact on us, from which we rebuild our sense of ourselves anew…. and so it goes on an everyday basis.

But underneath this we have a witnessing quality to us, which tends to just be there aware of things subconsciously. This witnessing quality does not change with external events, or with our thoughts, feelings or actions. It always maintains itself - seems to have its own private battery because it’s always on. When we go to sleep at night it is the feeling of ourselves going to sleep, and when we wake up it’s the feeling of ourselves waking up. Falling asleep and waking up are external to this witness, and it is not identified with these actions. It’s the ego, the constant feeling we have of who we are that does not change, that involves a feeling and internalised picture of who we are … as we breathe in and out.

We all need this subconscious sense of ourselves, otherwise we would feel insane. Aha, well we don’t want to feel that do we? This unchanging sense of ourselves is born in the 4th house by the Moon – thus it’s a Cancer understanding and vibration. We need this inner identity to relate our awareness to, hence we sometimes “talk to ourselves”. From our current awareness we are talking to this imaginary “self” that we are. But that’s the thing, somehow to us it’s not imaginary at all, it feels very real, and we may get emotional if this feeling we have of ourselves is contradicted, blocked or suppressed, denied, insulted or exploited. Because our sense of ourselves is different to everyone else’s sense of themselves it is also a sense of being separate to others, although often we long to have that feeling of isolation displaced by being with likeminded people and by having loving, nurturing bonds with others. This is the basis of "family and friends" that is generically valued the world over, and why.

And the polar opposite in the zodiac, Capricorn, in theory guards the entrance to this cave of familial togetherness, inside which the sense of self exists, and protects this sense of self from precisely all those things that would hurt it (contradiction, being blocked or suppressed, denied, insulted or exploited etc.). But often that doesn’t work because no-one can protect anyone from all these possibilities 24x7, and thus we need to get realistic (Saturn) about our sense of self, and keep updating it to be as emotionally self-functioning and self-sufficient as possible (via constructive emotional processing) so that as a living biological system it’s downtime (non-functioning time) is minimised - that it exists effectively, and thus healthily (Cancer, the 4th house and the Moon).

And through each further sign (using Saturn) we add more substance to this sense of self, our ego. A key breakthrough comes through Scorpio, the 8th house or Pluto (the Soul). Here the sense of self is forced to deepen, and much more becomes possible is terms of knowing one’s sense of self. The witness aspect of the self becomes more powerful and steady here. But the stakes are much higher – making the right decisions can be deeply rewarding in terms of pleasure but making the wrong ones can bring great pain. And then we move on through the next signs.

However although all this effort to develop (Saturn) our ego proves very useful most of the time in many situations, there is a side to life where it proves to be of no use at all. Because in the 12th house (or in Pisces or with Neptune) if we try to stay identified with this (now) possibly infinitely beautiful and glorious sense of our self, certainly a very matured sense of our self and no doubt one we’ve become very fond of … inevitably at some point we start to fall apart. And if we persist we steadily become very unsettled and uncertain, often unhappy, ungrounded and spaced out, and eventually delusional, or worst case - insane. All because we fear not knowing who we are - we cannot imagine being happy without our “sense of self”, we have become so very used to it. And thus we hang on to it … firmly (or tightly if we feel we need to). And naturally so – to let go and be a “nobody” is generally very frightening for the everyday awareness that the conscious self generally consists of.

Saturn is the last planet one can see with the naked eye, and so it represents the outer boundary of the conscious self. The planets beyond that correlate with our unconscious self. And accordingly Saturn is very invested usually in protecting this conscious sense of self that manifests in many layers within us, but which has its roots in our Moon, 4th house and Cancer makeup, and binding to our Soul via Pluto, the 8th house and Scorpio. Capricorn and Saturn both need a strong sense of self to function properly, and as the sense of self is an innate psychological form, from wherever they are in the chart they are able to invest in it, build it up, and protect it. This works everywhere except when Saturn is in the 12th house or Pisces, which represent an experience and attunement to a space that is an infinite unity, with no possibility to create forms within. Because no sooner a boundary is created in this space than it is mysteriously dissolved. So no form can ever take shape in a permanent way, at the most it can only exist in passing. In the 12th Saturn simply cannot function as it normally does, certainly not in relation to the sense of self.

How someone is able to be with an energy and vibration such as this depends greatly on their evolutionary stage. Darwin was late 3rd individuated which means his sense of self was highly developed, stable within and without, and reasonably free i.e. unique and original. However he did have a lot of Christian conditioning; many Christian beliefs - ideas about life and God based on the Bible that he hadn’t necessarily experienced for himself or was interested in doing so, but which he nonetheless retained as part of his “sense of self”. With his Saturn in the 12th Darwin would have found his strongly developed sense of self could exist and persist for all intents and purposes, most of the time. He had a staunch Moon in Capricorn and could defend his inner state through emotional control. This would allow him to function in the world and pursue his desires. However he would have been haunted by a nagging sense of uncertainty and insecurity, that felt totally elusive on a mostly constant basis in the background to his daily life. He would be able to maintain this uneasy balance between his sense of being a separate individual, and having a diffused sense of a centre and much reduced power over the environment – by creating a strict routine of work, personal duties, creativity time and family recreation time – a constant time for each in the day, day after day for almost the whole of his married life. Saturn being in the 12th forced him to create a highly structured unchanging lifestyle based around family and work alone. And this was vital for Darwin for several reasons.

Firstly he had lived so many past lives in a very expansive and unstructured way. The most recent life he had lived almost out of control, being wild and unruly, and it has given him a love of all that was completely isolated from society, so immersed in nature that he had very little to do with civilisation. This meant he was used to always being in a large undefined space (geographically, exactly like the 12th is psychologically).

Secondly, his experiences he has had of nature for lifetimes have been telling him that there was a hidden connection somehow operating … intuitively he sensed something invisible behind the physical world, or hidden within it, that was larger than the world of the senses. He knew in his bones (Saturn) there was more to life, more to nature, than met the eye. Elusive and mysterious though it was, it was exactly the area he was interested in, and needed to work in … if “work” is possible as such in the 12th. In fact it is more like “coping” rather than working, but it meant he was free to continue without restrictions, as he had in previous lives, and at the same time it forced him to bring a Virgo/6th/Mercury vibration to his life (via his routines which were vitally needed to balance and stabilise his 12th house situation). Provided he took responsibility for his Saturn functioning and made sure it did function sufficiently, having Saturn here gave him full control and the freedom he was accustomed to, to utilise his Saturn energies as he liked. It meant he had a channel, via his human mind, into the vast mystery of the beyond.

And thirdly, as one nears the end of the 3rd individuated evolutionary stage, approaching the transition to the spiritual, nervousness can arise. The sense one has of oneself is coming to it’s culmination, strongest manifestation, and a vague subtle emptiness sometimes appears to be on the horizon. In this inner situation there is sometimes a desire to delay (Saturn) the inevitable by anchoring oneself to the past in some way, by identifying with an aspect of oneself that is known and reliable. And Darwin was doing this through a massive and total identification with his life’s work (Saturn). The highly structured lifestyle and total focus he created around his work because of having Saturn in the 12th was also to create this anchor against the tides of the infinite.

Another reason Saturn was in the 12th house was due to the huge build up of guilt over so many lifetimes, that it was almost more than he could ever deal with, and thus much of it had been pushed deep into his unconscious. His guilt is largely natural in origin and so is not going to fade easily from his consciousness, and his Soul knows the best way to atone for this guilt now is by dedicating his total abilities and skills to some cause, some great sacrifice (12th house), which of course his work (Saturn) represented in that he had an enormous intellect and dedicated his entire life in total to using it for the benefit of humanity.

It was for all these various reasons that Darwin’s Saturn was in the 12th house – it was a space he was already very familiar with at a Soul level. And it was also a space he absolutely needed to be in control of as much as possible, in order to not just repeat his last life, which in a way was productive but at the end of the day changed little from a public perspective, and also left him with unfulfilled desires and very likely feeling frustrated (Saturn quincunx the Noon’s SN). And as his core interest in nature had taken him so deeply into it, that it was as if he was looking at an invisible veil, behind which he had already sensed biological secrets, in this life it was vital that he was able to have a clear and sane head to continue in that mysterious realm. Not just to be grounded himself in his observations and work with biological and geological unity, but so he could capture it and show it to others.

And for that capture the Soul needed Saturn to be in Sagittarius. As we know Darwin had been building to this life of great revelation for many lifetimes now – this has been gone into so extensively by everyone. And we can see this reflected throughout the chart ... PPP in the 9th house, Jupiter new conjunction Pluto, Jupiter in Pisces, Mercury balsamic conj Pluto in the 3rd, Uranus conj the lunar NN and a Sagittarius ASC ... the Sagittarian themes permeate throughout the chart. And because of this here is another case where there is very little choice on the part of the Soul as to Saturn's placement in the chart - the optimum location by far for Saturn is in Sagittarius, to act as a binding and stabilising force for all these higher mind energies, pursuits and preoccupations.

Regardless of where it’s placed Saturn in Sagittarius invokes a need to understand an actual reality as opposed to a theoretical possibility, and also a need to be a little streetwise. In Darwin’s case it was a need to understand what these mysteries he was observing actually were, beyond his or anyone else’s theories. Because no-one had the definitive answers to the questions Darwin was deeply concerning himself with, it may have been tempting at times to pass a theory off as a valid explanation, simply because Saturn’s truth is such hard work, and if any weaknesses in the argument were compensated for probably no-one would be able dispute it anyway. But with Saturn in Sagittarius faith in one’s own theories, or other people’s answers, or even directly in the unknown itself, is minimised ... and a superficial truth will certainly never satisfy. Saturn in Sagittarius potentially brings sincerity and integrity into the search for truth, and being in the 12th, for the whole truth. But whenever he discovered something of the truth it also gave him the sense to thoroughly analyse possible reactions to it (of all kinds not just logical), and also the ability to create effective strategies concerning those premeditated arguments against those possible reactions … to be mentally streetwise (Sag). Which was an important part of his overall scientific work, getting it accepted enough that it was genuinely validated once and for all. This was absolutely necessary in order to avoid another life just the same as Dampier’s – spectacular and brilliant in output, but a relatively dismal failure in terms of reward for that great exertion, reward being recognition for his true worth … the healing he has so desperately needed from the world for lifetimes. So in one sense, ultimately Saturn was in Sagittarius in the 12th house to ensure that Darwin finally got the deepest healing on a Soul level that was so, so desperately needed – he just needed to revolutionize science, as it was known at the time, to get it. Having Saturn in Sagittarius in the 12th helped the Soul to finally turn its deepest weakness into its greatest strength.

Yeah. Thanks for doing this segment on Saturn given just how busy you have been. I will read through it on Monday. After that we can begin on the Uranus segment of the Planetary Method. I am so glad you, Ari, Gray, and Gonzalo will be continuing on with the last two parts of the Planetary Thread. It has been simply incredible EA work to date. Over 10,000 people have now clicked on this thread to read. All of you have been serving as true ambassadors and teachers of EA. Thank you all for this.